It’s time to challenge the status quo and slaughter some marketing sacred cows! 

James, Nic and Sarah are joined by Nick Eggleton of Electric Agency to discuss some controversial opinions. In doing so, they tackle influencer marketing, thought leadership, public relations companies and balance in the media. 

Brand Newsroom is a marketing podcast for anyone who has a say in how companies are communicating — covering marketing, content marketing, public relations, media, branding and advertising.

Here are some key take-outs: 

• Is influencer marketing just a sales tactic, rather than an awareness tactic, that can actually be detrimental to brands? Does it really build trust? Nick Eggleton says no.
• The metrics used to measure influencer marketing are questionable at best, Nick says.
• The secret to strong brands is authenticity and using micro-influencers, using hidden paid messages, you’re not being authentic, Nick says.
• If everyone says they’re a thought leader, then no one is, Sarah Mitchell says. The term is thrown around to make people seem more influential than they are.
• If you’re paying someone else to create your thought leadership content, then you’re not a thought leader, Sarah says.
• More than half of PR agencies are ineffective or borderline incompetent, says Nic Hayes.
• Done well, PR is extremely effective, but Nic says many are not providing a good service to their clients; they’re just putting out ill-conceived “rubbish” to the media.
• There’s more to PR than writing a press release. It’s about building relationships with the media and having a story of importance to their particular audience.
• Nic says one journalist who attended his Meet the Media events recently actually has a “S**t PR” folder in their contact book and press releases from those PRs don’t even get looked at.
• The media is misunderstanding balance, James says. Some news services give airtime to commentators with moronic views, like climate change deniers, he says, either for misguided “balance” or to spice up the conversation.
• Having someone who “believes” something on your show is not the same as having an expert on your show.

On My Desk

• Nic recommended a blog by Media Stable’s Jon Solvander, 5 tips for pitching success (that’s pitching a story to the media)
• Nick suggested Steve Harrison’s book How to Write Better Copy
• Sarah recommended a New York Times article called ‘OMG! This is wrong’
• James suggested Short Edition’s Short Story Dispenser.

Links you might need

• You can find Nick Eggleton at Electric Agency or on Twitter.

Have you heard the one about…

Recently James, Sarah and Nic looked at the state of the media in 2018.